Everlong
by DigitalEloquence
Summary: War, belief, life, hope, love, trust, beauty and desire. Welcome to the Adult Lives of the Harry Potter characters... Planned novelfic. Ships - everchanging...
1. Default Chapter

A/N - Well, I've always wondered what would happen to the characters of Harry Potter after they graduated from dear old Hogwarts. This story is about their adult-lives. It's rated R because it will deal with war, drugs, sex, violence, and all that unhappy stuff. But it will also have to do with life, love, and happiness. Please, read and review and try to enjoy yourself...  
  
  
  
"Ginny, could you please get that?" Ron cried from his spot beside the fire where he was busily arranging his collection of Quidditch newspaper clippings.   
  
  
"Okay, okay," Ginny sighed, getting up from the overstuffed armchair she had been sitting in to answer the door. Ron barely noticed the door opening, much less the figure out on the front porch. Instead he was looking down, intrigued at the moving clips of the Cannons swooping and diving after the Quaffle. That's why he didn't look up until Ginny gasped and said one word.   
  
  
"Hermione?"  
  
  
Then he was up like a bolt and standing beside Ginny. There was indeed a woman standing on the front porch but it was hard to believe that it was Hermione at all. Yes, she looked like Hermione; same hair, same eyes but this woman was breathing in deep ragged breaths. It had been raining all night and her hair was wet and stuck to her face. But despite the rain Ron could still tell she was crying.  
  
  
"'Oh my God, Mione, what's the matter? Gin, hurry and go get Mum," he ordered staring at the woman, who he figured was Hermione.   
  
  
"Okay," Ginny murmured, frightened, and immediately disappeared. It only took a few seconds before Molly Weasley burst into the Burrow living room followed closely behind by Ginny.   
  
  
"Hermione, dear...is that you?" Molly gasped. "Ron, what're you doing just standing there like that? Get her in here. Ginny, go upstairs and get a blanket or some towels or something. Can't you see she's soaked?" Molly Weasley had full grasp of the situation. Ginny, of course, disappeared again off to search for those towels leaving Ron to drag Hermione inside. Molly guided the girl to the couch and sat her down.   
  
  
"Hermione, what happened?" Mrs.Weasley asked. Hermione just shook her head and took a few more shaky breaths.   
  
  
"Well, I'm going to go into the kitchen and make you some tea. Does that sound nice? Now why don't you put yourself together and when I come back you can tell me what's wrong," Mrs.Weasley said, as Hermione nodded. Just then, Ginny appeared with the towels and took the spot beside Hermione on the couch.   
  
  
"Oh Herm," Ginny sighed, as she brushed at Hermione's hair with one of the towels. Ron just stared at her; Hermione Granger, one of his very best friends, maybe the very best of all. The last time he'd seen her she'd announced her engagement to Vicktor Krum. It had, quite possibly, been the worst day of his life. He'd always thought she'd come to her senses one day and leave that creep who he knew was wrong for her and he'd told her that her last visit. She hadn't cared. The wedding had been set for September 22nd and he had not planned on going. In a way, he knew this would break her heart but he didn't want to see it happening. It was enough to just think of it, anyway.   
  
  
But here she was, wet and crying on his living room couch. He wanted to know why, of course, but for some reason that wasn't as important as the fact that she was there. Really there.   
  
  
His mother came now, holding a large cup of tea. She pressed it into Hermione's hands and now Hermione stared into it.   
  
  
"So, tell us...what happened?"  
  
  
"Well," Hermione sighed. "Just this morning I told Vicktor that I was going to be going over to the Ministry to fill out some forms and run a few errands. Well, since I have the week off from my Auror training and Vicktor had the week off too, I thought I'd buy some groceries and spend the day with Vicktor. So when I came home, I opened the door to our apartment and he's in there making out with some girl."  
  
  
There were gasps from both Ginny and Molly at this point.  
  
  
"What girl?" Ginny asked, wide eyed.   
  
  
"I don't know, just some girl. I had no idea who she was or anything. So, I drop all my groceries and he just stand there like some idiot with this, this woman standing beside him with her shirt off." Hermione paused and looked into her tea, disgusted. "So, of course I asked him what the hell was going on and, and...he just shrugged and said he didn't know. Then he started babbling to the other girl and she left. So, then I started to go too and he asked me where I was going, to my Mum and Dad or something like that. I told him no, I wasn't going to my parents' house, but wherever I did go I didn't want to hear from him, so why should it matter anyway?"   
  
  
'Good job, Hermione' Ron thought, staring at the three women on the couch. The entire Weasley family knew that Hermione had recently had a falling out with her parents concerning the matter of Vicktor and his summer home in Bulgaria. She couldn't possibly stay with them, because they had suddenly decided that they no longer had a daughter.  
  
  
"Well since I couldn't go to Mum and Dad, I thought you guys would take me for a few weeks just till I got a new apartment," Hermione said, clearly. She had stopped crying and her hair was starting to look a little dry.  
  
  
"Well of course you can stay here," Molly said. "I can't just tell you no, you're like family. You can stay in your old room and everything; we'll just need to fix the bed up again."   
  
  
"You just stay here and finish your tea, it'll only take a minute to set the bed up," Ginny said, standing to go help her mother. "I'll be back to get you in a few, 'kay?"   
  
  
When Ron was sure they'd gone upstairs he focused on Hermione. He stood up and took a place beside her on the couch. She looked down at her lap, looking almost ashamed at herself for being wrong about Vicktor.   
  
  
  
The strands in your eyes   
That color them wonderful  
Stop me and steal my breath  
Emeralds from mountains thrust towards the sky  
Never revealing their depth  
  
  
  
"'Mione?"   
  
  
"Okay now's not the time Ron. All right? You can yell at me and tell me you told me so tomorrow," she sighed.  
  
  
"No! No! No 'Mione, I'm not gonna yell at you. I just y'know, started thinking about you and Vicktor and how upset you used to get when I talked about him. And I just," he sighed. "Oh, come here," he held his arms out and she immediately accepted the hug.  
  
  
He pulled back after a moment, so he could see her face. "Are you okay?"  
  
  
"No, I'm not okay. I left my fiancé," Hermione whispered and again she was crying.  
  
  
"Don't cry, okay. I can't stand that," Ron said.  
  
  
"I, I can't help it," she sniffled, brushing her tears away with her palms.   
  
  
"Anything I can do? Whatever you need," he asked.   
  
  
"Well-But-Now, if-if you can change time, y'know, and stop him before he does...what he did, then things can go back to normal."   
  
  
"I could try," he said and she smiled a little, through her tears. "You know, Hermione Granger, your eyes have a little bit of green in them."  
  
  
"They do not," she declared, the smile playing again with the edges of her lips. "Don't you think I would have noticed if they did?"   
  
  
He shrugged. "I don't know if you've noticed or not but they really do have a little green in them. You should take the time and look."   
  
  
"Hemione? We're done," that was Ginny. "You can come on up, now."  
  
  
"I better go, Ron." She got up from the couch and went up the stairs leaving him to watch her disappear. That was Sunday night.   
  
  
  
And tell me that we belong together  
Dress it up with the trappings of love  
I'll be captivated  
I'll hang from your lips  
Instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above  
  
  
  
Monday morning dawned in shades of gray and pearl, and Ronald Weasley woke up in a new world; a world that revolved around Hermione Granger. He got out of his bed and stumbled over to his window, where he could see his sister, Virgina, and Hermione collecting the sheets his mother had hung over the magically invisible line in the back garden last night after the rain. If there was one thing Molly Weasley insisted on doing all the time, it was hanging the fresh sheets out in the back garden to catch the air. There was nothing sweeter in the world than sheets that smelled of night air. Of course, Molly Weasley insisted on bringing the sheets in at dawn and magically ridding them of all dew each morning before breakfast and so there was Ginny and Hermione, outside in the gray throwing charms at the sheets on the invisable wire.   
  
  
Down in the back garden the two girls busily flicked their wands and went running to catch the sheets as they flew towards them. Hermione had found that if she usually stayed still and it wasn't a very windy day, she could make the sheets come directly to her and even fold them in mid-air but with Ginny beside her, talking, it was much harder to concentrate.   
  
  
"So, I was thinking," Hermione began. "I'll get an apartment and maybe ask you to room with me, because I can't pay for an apartment by myself. Training to be an Auror doesn't really promise you money every week and if I take a job down at Flourish and Blotts, I might be able to cover half of the rent. I'd just really, really need a roommate or two."   
  
  
"Well, I would jump for the chance but you keep forgetting that I've still got another year at Hogwarts to get through," Ginny sighed, flipping her wand at a flowered sheet. It slid of the wire easily and then blew off in a gust of wind. "Oh, bloody hell," she cried, running to catch the sheet before it hit the ground.  
  
  
"I can't stay here for an entire year, Ginny," Hermione cried after Ginny, who'd just caught the sheet in her outstretched arms.   
  
  
"Why not? Ron's doing it," Ginny nodded at the house.   
  
  
"Ginny, you know I can't."   
  
  
"But why not?" Ginny asked again, flicking her wand at the final sheet and grabbing it out of mid-air.   
  
  
Hermione really didn't know. Perhaps it was the fact that she had no way to pay the Weasley family back, she couldn't even scratch up enough money to buy herself a few new books. Vicktor had always been the one to supply the money. She sighed, aggravated with the entire idea that she'd let Vicktor talk her into staying home everyday and taking care of the apartment. She had turned into the legendary housewife and she hadn't even been married to Vicktor.   
  
  
"Come on, Herm. That was the last one," Ginny said, grabbing the basket filled with sheets. Hermione followed her back into the Burrow, where Molly Weasley was cooking bacon.   
  
  
"Owl post been through yet, Molly?" Arthur Weasley asked, making his first appearance in the kitchen for breakfast.   
  
  
"No," Molly answered. "Expecting something?"   
  
  
"Eh, uh, no," Arthur stammered, as Molly brought the bacon, draining on a magical brand of paper-towel and still sizzling like mad, to the table. She looked toward her daughter for an answer but Ginny just shrugged.   
  
  
"Where's Ron?" Arthur asked, looking around the kitchen as if the boy might be hiding somewhere.   
  
  
"Still up in bed," Ginny said, taking the pot of coffee her mother handed her to the table.   
  
  
"Uh, no." The entire kitchen turned to look at Ronald Weasley, who was sporting a wonderful case of bed head. "I'm here...and just in time for breakfast, too." With that he grabbed a piece of toast and fell into a seat at the kitchen table. Hermione rolled her eyes, remembering that this was the way the old Ron had acted at Hogwarts back when she was a girl.   
  
  
"Um, Mum... I was wondering, since I've only got one more year at Hogwarts and everything, well... Hermione's going to really need a roommate to help her with rent and stuff and after I graduate, if it wouldn't be a problem or anything...maybe I could move in with her. Maybe?"   
  
  
"Ginny, that's an entire year away and you know you can always stay with us as long as you need. Ron's staying home, aren't you Ron?" Mrs. Weasley asked, nodding towards Ron who simply shrugged and concentrated on his toast.   
  
  
"Well, Molly, it's only a year and it might be nice to plan these things ahead of time," Arthur offered. "Think of it, the house empty all year long."   
  
  
Mrs.Weasley looked shocked. "I don't want the house to be empty. What would I want with an empty house?" Arthur stammered for the right words in the tiny Burrow kitchen. Hermione felt oddly out of place, while Ginny looked more mortified than anything else. Ron didn't even look like he was listening anymore.   
  
  
"Well, Mum, what do you suggest Hermione do? She can't possibly pay for an apartment by herself and she can't stay here, can she?"   
  
  
"I could move in with her," Ron offered. Again everyone in the kitchens head's snapped toward Ron, who just sat there staring at his toast. "What?" he asked, staring back at all of them, confused.   
  
  
After that, everyone was unusually quiet around the breakfast table, except when Owl Post came through. Pig came sailing through the kitchen window, looking greatly the part of a gray tennis ball. After narrowly missing the coffeepot, he dropped a large letter in front of Ron, who openly groaned.   
  
  
"Ministry forms," he sighed, pulling open the envelope. "Do I have to fill these out again?"   
  
  
"Well, if you want a good job in a nice department you have to fill out the forms," Arthur nodded.   
  
  
"Maybe they were too sloppy last time," Ginny teased from where she was finishing up the last of the breakfast dishes. Hermione tutted and shook her head, also teasing as she got up from her place at the table. The two girls disappeared up the stairs, giggling. This, of course, scared Ron. He'd always been frightened of the friendship between Ginny and Hermione and he never understood why.   
  
  
  
And I'll be your crying shoulder  
I'll be love suicide  
I'll be better when I'm older  
I'll be the greatest fan of your life  
  
  
  
Sometime in the afternoon, the rain began again. Hermione and Ginny occupied themselves with a few older issues of Witch Weekly magazine. Hermione had always hated Witch Weekly but today she flipped through them a look of half-amusement and half-annoyance on her face.   
  
  
The Burrow which had originally been built to be a small and organized home had long ago turned eccentric and had gained a life of it's on. What had once been two stories had somehow turned into six, the attic floor being the very sixth. On the fifth floor, there were two bedrooms; Ron's and an extra bedroom that Ginny sometimes used during the Summer. The only reason Ginny liked the room, was because of a large window that, when opened, led out into an unstable balcony. The balcony was so unstable that unless the Burrow wasn't held together by strong magic it probably would have already fallen off. The roof covered it; just enough that Ginny could stand out in any weather and look upon the entire yard of the Burrow. Ginny's extra room had been converted into a more private room for Hermione and that was where, on the second night which was Monday, Ron found her.   
  
  
She was standing on the very edge of the balcony, looking out into the rain. She didn't move when Ron climbed through the window and out onto the unstable balcony ground and so he thought she didn't know he was there, until she started speaking.   
  
  
"It's funny, isn't it Ron, how everyone hates the rain? I don't hate it, I think it's romantic. It's probably one of the most naturally romantic things that happen and everyone overlooks it, or just calls it dreary. I don't understand that."   
  
  
She paused for a second, maybe for effect. Before she could say anything else a bolt of lightning struck the sky and gave it white hot color. Ron flinched.  
  
  
"You're afraid of lightning?" she asked, turning slightly to look at him. "I'm not. It's exciting. You know, Vicktor hated the rain."  
  
  
Ron didn't care much for the rain himself but he wasn't about to say that now. Instead he stepped toward the edge of the balcony and Hermione, searching for the perfect words. "Hermione, why'd you stay with him all that time when you knew he was going to do this?"  
  
  
Far from perfect.   
  
  
At first he thought she hadn't heard him but suddenly she shrugged and began talking again.   
  
  
"I think it was because Vicktor was the first one to notice that I was good for something. I mean, other then being someone's right hand man or something. He was the first to take the time to look at me and see me. It was nice to be noticed and it was nice at the Yule Ball to get all those looks from everyone. Because he chose me. That was it, at first. It was just nice to be looked at."   
  
  
Ron felt slightly disturbed. This was Hermione. Hermione of the bushy brown hair and the slightly large front teeth. Hermione who studied constantly, Hermione who'd checked his homework for mistakes back in their school days. The one who'd constantly rolled her eyes at Lavender and Parvarti and their constant make-up talks. All that time, she'd only wanted to be looked at? Disturbing, to say the very least.   
  
  
"Of course, I learned to love him after awhile and I'd do anything for him. It came to the point where I gave up everything for him; you and Harry didn't like him and Mum and Daddy didn't like him or Bulgaria. So, I gave that all up and stayed with him. We got the apartment and he convinced me to stay at home and enjoy myself while he went off to make money. He didn't make me stay home all day. I went to Quidditch matches and parties and it was kind of nice. I mean who wouldn't want to be introduced as Vicktor Krum's fiancée?"   
  
  
The answer was loads of women certainly would. Vicktor wasn't exactly the most attractive man in the world but he made up for that with his Quidditch skill and extreme popularity with fans. Ron had once idolized him and, along with Harry, studied every one of his special Quidditch moves. The man was famous and any woman would marry him, if only he'd ask.   
  
  
But Hermione had not been one of those women. She had barely any interest in Quidditch at all and detested the idea of fangirlism. She had actually loved the man, not because he was a famous Quidditch player but only because she did. She had fallen in love with Vicktor Krum, student of the Institute of Durmstrang not Vicktor Krum the famous Bulgarian Seeker. And that was the difference.   
  
  
"So, I don't know." She turned and walked a bit away from the edge of the balcony. "What was I supposed to do, leave him for no reason at all? Of course, I suspected that something like that was going on. I mean, I'm not an idiot."   
  
  
She certainly was not.   
  
  
"So you knew?" Ron asked, slightly confused.   
  
  
"Yes...and no," she shrugged. "It's hard to explain. I could just tell."   
  
  
"How did you ever leave him, 'Mione?" Ron had never exactly believed that Vicktor and Hermione would be over. It had been something he had hoped for but he'd never thought that it could actually happen.   
  
  
"I really don't know. I just left;" she shrugged again and made her way towards the window to her room again. "Unless you're planning on staying out there all night, you'll get in here now because I'm going to shut the window."   
  
  
  
And rain falls angry on the tin roof  
As we lie awake in my bed.  
And you're my survival,   
you're my living proof  
My love is alive and not dead.  
  
  
  
  
Of course, he was through the window in a snap. Now, here she stood in Ginny's extra bedroom. Like most of the other rooms in the Weasley home, the room was untidy but in a pleasant kind of way. It was a room where Mrs.Weasley and Ginny stored little odds and ends; stacks and stacks of old Witch Weekly magazines, old pictures, antique bird cages, trunks that looked like they'd been last opened around the turn of the century.   
  
  
"Do you want to, maybe, stay and talk to me till I fall asleep?" she asked. Ron was stunned. What kind of question was that, anyway?   
  
  
"Just till I fall asleep and then you can run off to your bed or something."   
  
  
"Okay, sure. So, talk? What about?"   
  
  
"I don't know. Anything," she sighed, laying down on the bed near the balcony window. Ron settled into an odd looking but still rather comfortable chair.   
  
  
"Okay, umm - well. Uhh - Bulgaria, huh?"   
  
  
"Yeah, Bulgaria," Hermione said. "All right, if you're with someone who knows the place and all. So, when was the last time you heard from Harry?"   
  
  
"Uh, about a week ago. He's coming up in August to stay awhile, just like you guys always used to."   
  
  
"So it's going to be just like old times, then?" she asked, smiling naturally.   
  
  
"Yeah."   
  
  
"Old times are the best times," she nodded. Ron had to agree.   
  
  
And tell me that we belong together  
Dress it up with the trappings of love  
I'll be captivated  
I'll hang from your lips  
Instead of the gallows of heartache, that hang from above  
  
  
  
"You know what I miss, 'Mione?"   
  
  
She shook her head.   
  
  
"Hogwarts."   
  
  
Hermione bit her lip to keep from giggling.  
  
  
"What?! Is that so hard to believe?"   
  
  
"Yes!"   
  
  
"Why?"   
  
  
"I thought you hated it there," Hermione said, arching her eyebrows instinctively.   
  
  
"Only because classes were so boring," Ron sighed.   
  
  
"Our classes were not boring!"   
  
  
"Maybe not for you, 'Mione, but for the rest of us..."   
  
  
"That's still hard to believe," she said, shifting slightly on the bed.   
  
  
"That's not the point!"   
  
  
"What is the point?" Hermione looked at him, eyes questioning.   
  
  
"That the adventures made up for everything, I mean - was there ever a time when the three of us didn't come through and defeat all the evil?"   
  
  
She appeared to be thinking about it. Finally, she nodded. "I think that's why we always won because we knew we'd always have someone to lean on if one of us got hurt. I mean - you were so witty and Harry was so brave..."   
  
  
"And you..."   
  
  
"Oh, no..."   
  
  
"You were so smart..."   
  
  
"Oh gee, I'm going to sleep!" She appeared slightly agitated.   
  
  
"'Night 'Mione."   
  
  
"Yeah, okay - night Ron."   
  
  
She turned her back to him and faced the wall, closing her eyes.   
  
  
He decided to spend the night.   
  
  
  
And I'll be your crying shoulder  
I'll be love suicide  
I'll be better when I'm older  
I'll be the greatest fan of your life  
I've dropped out  
Burned up,   
Fought my way back from the dead  
Tuned in,  
Turned on,   
Remembered the things that you said  
  
  
  
As she slept, he remembered; he remembered times when they were much more childish and wild...   
  
  
He could easily remember her hands, helping him up after he let himself be lost to the giant chess game when the three of them had searched for the Sorcerer's Stone. Her words were tough, yet reassuring and they'd seen him through.   
  
  
He could remember defending her against Malfoy when he called her a Mudblood; taking that curse filled with slugs for her and her shrieks when the curse hit him.   
  
  
Most of all, he remembered the Yule Ball and the exact way her hair fell from that elegant bun as she yelled at him. He remembered how he loved her so that night and how he'd felt assured that if he just watched her, she'd notice.   
  
  
She had helped to form and secure a defense for that stupid Hippogriff, spent the night helping him re-do his Astronomy charts, fought with him over a thousand little things. He remembered his jealously very clearly in his 4th year and vaguely he could remember her own jealously in that same year.   
  
  
It was in the middle of these thoughts that he fell asleep, sitting in the armchair. His sleep that night was plagued with dreams and memories of Hogwarts; unnaturally vivid but happy. His dreams that night spanned seven years and seven adventures, in which the three of them always came through.   
  
  
  
And I'll be your crying shoulder  
I'll be love suicide  
I'll be better when I'm older  
I'll be the greatest fan of your life  
  
  
  
The sun fell through the window and hit Hermione Granger's shoulders. She had known that she would awake unnaturally early - she was sleeping in a bed that she hadn't occupied in years and it always took three nights to get used to a new bed. She turned away from the window and sat up, looking into the still-asleep face of Ron Weasley.   
  
  
She couldn't help but smirk a little.   
  
  
Maybe life with Ron wouldn't be so bad, after all.   
  
  
  
The greatest fan of your life,  
The greatest fan of your life. 


	2. At This Moment

A/N - This is the second chapter of the (planned) incredibly long fanfiction, Everlong. The song is "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters and I'm telling you this one is a worth a download because... Well, it really helps with this chapter, and, obviously, it's the name of the chapter. Television fans might actually recognize this one, if they watch Nick at Nite, anyways. If you can guess from which television show on Nick at Nite I got this song from, I'll give you a cookie.   
  
Okay... Just a little information to get you started... This one begins in August where 'I'll Be' leaves off. Harry is visiting the Burrow, Hermione's still hanging around there, and its Molly Weasley's birthday.   
  
Sorry for the extremely long author's note. I'll try not to do that again...   
  
  
  
  
Harry Potter stepped onto the back porch of the Burrow, into the blue early evening. In the softness of the night he could barely see Ginny Weasley standing in the middle of the Burrow's garden, clutching a bouquet of flowers. For a moment he watched her and then wandered down the porch and the small path to stand near her. Inside the house, Mrs.Weasley's birthday party went on.   
  
"Do you think Mum would like these flowers?" Ginny asked, glancing at Harry only briefly before turning her eyes back down to the small bunch of flowers gripped tightly in her hand.   
  
"Yeah. I bet she would," Harry nodded. "Look, we need to talk."   
  
"Oh?" she said, looking up from the flowers again. "About what?"   
  
"About us."   
  
Ginny was again looking at the flowers, contemplative. Tonight, her hair was loose and to her shoulders instead of her normal, every-day ponytail or braid. She had taken quite well to the Muggle fashions Hermione had introduced her to, seeming to prefer sundresses to her old Witches robes and tonight she was covered in pink roses.   
  
"Harry, there's no us anymore," she said, shaking her head politely. She obviously did not want to talk about it.   
  
"Yeah but we need to talk about it anyway, Gin," he said seriously, pushing on even though he knew he shouldn't.   
  
"Harry," she looked at him openly with large brown eyes, "I don't want to talk about this right now. I don't want to talk about this ever. Can't we just forget about it and go on with our lives?"   
  
"I don't think I can do that," Harry urged, taking a step toward her.   
  
"I don't see why not. It was your own stupid mistake," Ginny said, looking down at the flowers in her hands. Now she began to shift them in her hands, arranging them to fit perfectly to the image in her mind.   
  
"That's right. It was a mistake," Harry said.   
  
"Yeah, well it hurt me. And I don't feel like remembering it," she said, turning away from him with flowers still in hand.   
  
"But it's been a long time, Gin. I don't guess you want to forgive me, then?" Harry pouted. He noticed that she had turned around and was looking at him with those vivid, brown eyes of hers. Except they were soft eyes, now. Sad eyes.   
  
"A few months isn't a long time Harry and I don't know," she said. "I guess not." With that she shrugged and looked away from him again. Remembering this situation was not something she wanted to do and she would not let him force her into it.   
  
  
What did you think   
I would do at this moment   
When you're standing before me   
With tears in your eyes?   
Trying to tell me that you   
Have found you another   
And you just don't love me no more   
  
  
  
Harry stood in the garden, staring at Ginny. He had no idea how they'd gotten to this point; where they couldn't talk over a simple matter together. Hadn't they been best friends once? Was she insane enough to think that this didn't hurt him, too? Did she think he enjoyed this? He didn't. He didn't enjoy it at all. He remembered the look on her face when she'd heard; delicate hurt and pain. He had never wanted to hurt her. It had all been an accident.   
  
But a horrible one and Harry supposed that it was his fault. It had, of course, been his idea to keep their relationship a secret; he didn't want things to be weird with he and Ron and Ginny didn't want Ron yelling at her about 'scarlet women' and the dangers of men. It was easier that way and more exciting, too. It had also been fun. Fun trying to meet in private, making plans. He hadn't thought that keeping their relationship a secret would be bad thing.   
  
But it was. Fresh into the Ministry of Magic, training as an Auror. Aurors were very important, very political people and of course there had been parties. And it had been one of those parties that had brought them all apart. He had not been able to bring Ginny to the party for obvious reasons, especially if he planned to keep their secret relationship a...well, secret and so it had been perfectly okay with Ginny for him to go alone.   
  
He had been sitting at a table, discussing things with some Ministry employees when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to see a tall, blonde man with gray eyes who he knew vaguely. His name was Will. Will Something-or-other.   
  
"Harry," Will said, "I'd like you to meet someone." And then Harry had laved eyes on the woman slightly behind Will. It was Cho Chang wearing a form-fitting red dress with her raven black hair piled on top of her head. She had smiled slyly.   
  
"Harry, what a surprise. I've not seen you in ages!"   
  
"You two know each other?" Will asked, his eyes flicking from Cho to Harry in turn.   
  
"Um, yeah. We're old friends," Harry answered, politely. "Wow Cho, you look...great." She had smiled at him, that smile that had always made him practically melt back in 4th year.   
  
"Well, I'll see you around then, Harry. Will?" Cho asked and Will nodded, keeping his blue-gray eyes on Harry. They disappeared, Cho and Will. An extremely cute couple, don't you think?   
  
Harry managed to forget about Cho and Will, until later that next day. He had gone over to the Ministry to write up his last assignment and when he went into one of the office rooms he found Hermione, writing out her own forms furiously. She looked up at him and smiled, briefly. Hermione had been the only one to know about Ginny and Harry's relationship so lately whenever she saw Harry she would throw him a knowing glance or an odd little smile.   
  
"So, how was that party last night?" Hermione asked, signing her final form with a flourish.   
  
"It was all right," Harry shrugged, looking down at the paper before him.   
  
"Alright, eh? Probably would have been more all right if Ginny had been there," Hermione asked, raising her eyebrows.   
  
"Hermione, shut up! Someone'll hear you," Harry looked over his shoulder briefly, hoping no one he knew was around. Specifically Percy, who worked in this part of the Ministry.   
  
Hermione had shrugged and laughed, gathering up all her papers so she could look them all over for any mistakes she might have made. Just then, Cho walked in wearing a pastel yellow sundress. Harry wasn't sure if this wasn't her department or anything, but Harry was sure that the Ministry didn't usually allow their employees to wear short Muggle sundresses, during office hours especially   
  
"Hey you," Cho said, smiling. Hermione looked toward Harry, eyebrows raised.   
  
"Hi there, Cho."   
  
"Someone told me that I might find you here," Cho said, stepping into the room a little more to see Harry better. "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go pick up some lunch with me. You don't have to but I know no one likes to eat alone and, well...would you like to come?"   
  
"Sure," Harry smiled. Hermione looked as if she'd been hit in the stomach.   
  
"Great," Cho said. She glanced at Hermione and her smile faltered, slightly.   
  
"Oh! This is my good friend, Hermione Granger," Harry said. "I'm sure you remember Cho Chang, don't you 'Mione?"   
  
"Of course," Hermione said, in a voice that was a lot more like a whisper.   
  
"Charmed," Cho said, holding out her hand gracefully. Hermione stared at it for a few seconds, before reaching out to shake it curtly.   
  
"Likewise," Hermione said, giving Cho an up and down look. She took her forms and left immediately, without saying 'goodbye' to Harry. Cho waved a 'goodbye' and walked out of the office, as Harry stared after her.   
  
  
What did you think I would say at this moment   
When I'm faced with the knowledge   
That you just don't love me?   
Did you think I would curse you?  
Or say things to hurt you?   
Cause you just don't love me no more   
  
  
  
"What?" Ginny asked, so softly that Hermione could barely hear her.   
  
"Exactly. Lunch. Cho Chang. You remember her, don't you?" Hermione asked and watched Ginny nod. "Ginny, what should we do. Do you think I should tell Ron?"   
  
"No," Ginny said, shaking her head. Then the whole secret would be out and that wasn't worth it.   
  
"Well, what do you want me to do?" Hermione asked, again. There had to be something she could do to help the situation. She certainly wasn't just going to stand there and let Harry do this.   
  
"Nothing, Hermione. This is all supposed to be secret and nothing changes that," Ginny sighed, she was being incredibly strong. It wouldn't last much longer.   
  
"Fine," Hermione sighed. "But if you need anything..."   
  
"I know where to find you," Ginny said and watched Hermione leave. After that it was only a matter of time.   
  
About an hour later, she opened the door to her room seeing him stand before her as he always did. "Gin," he began and she shrugged. The look on her face spoke a thousand words to Harry, and he immediately understood.   
  
"Leave," she said, motioning toward the door.   
  
"Don't do this, Gin," he shook his head. "We can talk. It's not like anything happened, it was just lunch."   
  
"Lunch with Cho Chang? Lunch with Cho Chang is never just lunch, Harry, and I know it. Look, that's not even the point. The point was she was worth jeopardizing our relationship and she shouldn't be. Now please, just leave."   
  
"No."   
  
"No?"   
  
"That's right, no."   
  
"Why not? You obviously don't care about me."   
  
"Where did you get that from?" Harry cried. "And why should this even matter, it was just lunch!"   
  
"Please, just go away Harry. I need to deal with this myself. In my own time. Maybe one day, we can be friends again but not right now. Please, just...just go," she went over to her bed and laid down, facing towards the wall so he couldn't see her face.   
  
He paused for a moment. "Did you tell Ron?"   
  
"No," she said, curtly. "And I'm not going to, either. What would be the point of that, anyway? As far as anyone else is concerned, this never even happened."   
  
He was going toward the door when all of a sudden he stopped and turned around   
  
"Look Gin, I-I'm sorry, okay, I'm sorry, it was Cho Chang. I didn't know what to do. Come on! Come on, how insane would it be to cheat on you? Huh? I-I don't cheat right, I, that's not me, I'm not like that. And nothing happened. Nothing happened. Okay, well here we are. What do you want to do? How do you want to handle it? Do you want to fight for us or what, Gin?"   
  
"I don't know right now, okay. I just need some time to think and we'll talk about this later or something," she sighed, opening and closing her eyes fast to stop the tears that were threatening.   
  
And then he left.   
  
  
  
Did you think I could hate you?   
Or raise my hands to you?   
Now come on, you know me too well   
How could I hurt you   
When darling, I love you?   
And you know...I'd never hurt you   
  
  
"Oh Ginny," Hermione sighed, as Ginny told Hermione word-for-word exactly what had happened when Harry had come by. "Honestly, if he says nothing happened then maybe it's true. Maybe you should give him another chance." Hermione was suddenly becoming sorry that she'd told Ginny anything about Cho Chang and the lunch date. She pressed on: "Lots of people who aren't romantically involved at all go eat lunch with each other all the time."   
  
"That's not really the point," Ginny said. "Hermione, you know what I'm feeling, don't you? It's like when you ran out on Vicktor."   
  
Hermione closed her eyes and nodded. Really, she understood perfectly what Ginny was feeling but there was a difference between suspecting and knowing. Ginny didn't really know if anything had happened on Cho and Harry's lunch date or not, but Hermione had seen Vicktor and that woman, whatever her name was, going at it in the living room of her own apartment. Hermione had always suspected that Vicktor had taken some kind of lover and this had been confirmed. Suspecting didn't hurt, as much as knowing, that was a fact.   
  
"I don't think I want to talk to him but I'm thinking everyone else would notice if I just stopped talking to him at all," Ginny continued. "So, I'm thinking I'll re-build my friendship with him gradually, over whatever time it takes. But I don't think I could ever...y'know, love him again."   
  
"I understand," Hermione said. "It's a shame. You guys were so great together."   
  
"Yeah, I guess."   
  
And that had been it. The end of the tragic love story of Virgina Grace Weasley and Harry James Potter. Or at least, as far as Ginny was concerned.   
  
  
What do you think, I would give at this moment?  
If you'd stay   
I'd subtract twenty-years from my life  
I'd fall down on my knees   
Kiss the ground that you walk on  
If I could just hold you again   
  
  
  
"Gin," Harry began. "We have to talk. We've got to talk tonight, now."   
  
"Okay, fine. Let's talk," Ginny sighed, turning towards him.   
  
"Okay," he said, coming towards her.   
  
"So, what were you thinking?" Ginny asked. Harry looked slightly stunned.   
  
"Thinking?"   
  
"Yea, when Cho asked you out. Was it like a flash back from 4th year?"   
  
"Okay, this isn't fair."   
  
"No, let's not talk about fair. Nothing about this is fair."   
  
"Hey! You ended it," he said.   
  
"I ended it because I'm mad at you, not because I don't love you," Ginny said, in a voice that was barely a whisper.   
  
"You love me?" Harry asked.   
  
"Yes. Yes Harry. I'm mad, crazy in love with you. I was mad, crazy in love with you then and I still am now but see - this time, I'm not giving in. I'm not going to let you hurt me again. It's not worth it." She started to walk off again still carrying her flowers in one hand. She was almost across the garden when he stopped her.   
  
"You still love me."   
  
"Oh, yeah, so, you-you love me," she accused, pointing with her free hand at him.  
  
"So...what does this mean?" he yelled after her.   
  
She turned around and looked at him. "It means, I can't forgive you yet. I can't. And...I can't take it again, so...I guess this means you've missed your chance or something." With that she went inside the warm, lighted kitchen where her mother's birthday party was still in full swing. And outside, Harry Potter stood.   
  
  
  
I'd fall down on my knees   
Kiss the ground that you walk on, baby  
If I could just hold you  
If I could just hold you...again   
  
  
A/N - Okay, I know this one had kind of sad/depressing/twisted ending but I needed one of those to create the ongoing Harry/Ginny storyline. Am I saying that I'm going to ship Harry and Ginny? No, not really. I've got lots of things to try before I decide to marry Harry off to one character. xx;; But umm - review please. 


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